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Monday, 2 March 2009

Who Do You Think You Are? Live 2009 report

I finally got back to Largs at midnight last night from four days in London for the Who Do You Think You Are? Live show, and had a great time, with lots of wonderful discoveries made. I was helping Bob and Liz Blatchford on their stall - the couple publish the Family and Local History Handbook (www.genealogical.co.uk), which we were selling fast and furiously on the stall. Whilst the new edition is still some months away, the couple had decided to place all previous editions on a CD edition, and to say it went like hot cakes would be an understatement! A huge thanks to Bob and Liz for their hospitality and generosity, and above all else, the great craic!

There was a great deal of Scottish material there, more than I expected considering that no FHSs were present from north of the border. In addition to the universities of Strathclyde and Dundee, ScotlandsPeople and NAS were present, as was the Gathering 2009 and a professional genealogy firm. With Saturday being 'Scottish Saturday', there was also the stirring music of Celtic Pride, all the way from Glasgow, including that well known traditional pipe tune, "We Will Rock You"!

However, there were also some useful finds, including the fact thatDeceased Online (www.deceasedonline.com), launched several months ago, has finally uploaded new data, including burials information from Angus for the civil registration era - these were uploaded on servers at the venue, and will be going fully online in the next week or so. World Burials Index (www.worldburialindex.com) also launched its website, which includes burials at Edinburgh's Greyfriars churchyard.

Other finds included the fact that the Commonwealth War Graves Commission is about to build its first memorial since WW2, to commemorate almost 400 souls lost at Fromelles in WW1; the fact that the National Archives of Ireland has a MAJOR project on the go which may be online by the end of this year; the fact that FindmyPast is now working on the Chelsea Pension documents from TNA; plans for the future of the Who Do You Think You Are TV series from Alex Graham, the Glaswegian head honcho of independent television production company Wall to Wall; and much more.

There will be a full Scottish write up in a forthcoming edition of Discover my Past Scotland - but here are a few pics in the meantime...!